Modern art framing

July 21, 2008 5:15 PM

Art museum painting framing question. A common style of framing in art museums --- especially with abstract paintings such as Cy Twombly and Mark Rothko's works --- involves a thin strip of wood around the edge of a painting, perhaps with a few-millimeter gap between the edge of the canvas and the inner edge of the wood. The strip of wood is usually flush with the face of the painting. That's all there is to it. I would like to replicate this effect with some paintings I have.

Any idea how best to accomplish this effect? I am hoping to do it myself, using some basic hand tools, but I am not sure how best to fasten the frame to the painting, nor am I sure what is holding the frame together. The wood strips are very thin, perhaps a quarter of an inch wide, no more than half an inch.

posted by jayder to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

Best answer: Oh sigh, you bring back memories. My mother and her art school pals used to frame their abstract pieces this way. I hate to tell you but they just cut strips to size and then nailed the strips right to the stretchers. If you google strip framing you will find some how-tos, here is one, for example.
posted by gudrun at 5:58 PM on July 21, 2008

Best answer: IIRC from art school, that's just lattice stripping.
posted by konolia at 6:16 PM on July 21, 2008

Response by poster: Strip framing ... yes, that's exactly what I am talking about! I'm glad to know it's so simple. Thanks; I have actually been wondering about this for years!
posted by jayder at 7:06 PM on July 21, 2008